Learning's Leading Edges

JOHN HARVARD'S JOURNAL They point to the checks and balances Learning’s Leading Edges each person’s characteristic style. There used to ensure that research is under- is no evidence, she asserted, supporting taken responsibly, and that each experi- The harvard initiative on Learning the idea that such matching influences ment is evaluated not only on its sci- and Teaching (HILT), unveiled in Octo- learning outcomes. entific merits but also on criteria such ber, was inaugurated in a symposium on Nobel laureate in physics Carl Wie- as whether the research uses the right February 3. More than 300 participants man, a pioneer in effective science educa- species and the fewest possible number convened from all Harvard’s faculties— tion and associate director of science at of animals, and is designed to cause the principally senior professors and deans— the White House Office of Science and least amount of suffering. For certain sci- plus invited panelists with special ex- Technology Policy, noted that although entific questions, such as developing a pertise in the field. HILT is the fruit of a much is known (from cognitive psychol- vaccine to prevent HIV or trying to solve $40-million gift from Gustave M. Hauser, ogy, brain science, and college classroom major problems in neurodegenerative J.D. ’53, and his wife, Rita E. Hauser, L studies) about thinking and learning, disease, other animal models are a poor ’58, who attended the symposium and this knowledge is almost never applied approximation of a human being. Pri- participated actively during the question to teaching techniques. He cited a few re- mates are “only used when lower animals periods (see “Investing in Learning and search results that are well established: won’t work, and they’re used in some Teaching,” January-February, page 60). • trying to teach anything to someone research that’s been extraordinarily im- In her welcoming remarks, President whose attention is divided will impair portant to human health,” said Deborah Drew Faust accented the connection be- learning; Runkle, senior program associate for the tween “thinking and making”—foreshad- • unnecessary cognitive overload (jar- American Association for the Advance- owing a theme of later discussions: how gon, complex figures) impedes the learn- ment of Science. learning deepens when students have ing process; In the weeks since the February death, hands-on experiences with the material • covering a topic, testing, then consid- NEPRC’s interim director, professor of studied. Director of institutional research ering the job done may not result in reten- medicine Frederick Wang, resigned after Erin Driver-Linn, a central organizer of the tion of what was learned; and a six-month tenure, even though Faust event, noted that the first year of Hauser • telling something to listeners who and Flier credited his leadership for be- support would launch many pilot studies don’t process the information in some way ginning to steer the center in the right across the University, and that HILT had will not create long-lasting knowledge. direction. William W. Chin, HMS’s ex- already received 255 letters of intent to ap- Roddy Roediger, McDonnell Distin- ecutive dean for research, is temporarily ply for grants. guished University Professor at Wash- overseeing the center during the search Cabot professor of social ethics Mahza- ington University, described some of his for a successor. Harvard has made efforts rin Banaji, facilitator for the first panel, research on college students (whom he to increase transparency: two new in- on “The Science of Learning,” noted that called “the Drosophila of my field”). “You terim leaders gave the Globe a tour of the many common beliefs about learning sim- learn a lot more from exams than from center, demonstrating firsthand some of ply aren’t so—for example, that individu- reading material,” he said. Professors and the new procedures intended to increase als have different ways of learning, so edu- students dislike tests, but frequent assess- the accountability and oversight of animal cators should match teaching methods to ments outpace more study time as a way care, including afternoon checks of water availability. More supervisors and staff are Having winnowed the 255 applications for Hauser Fund grants by more than being hired. And a seven-member, blue- half, a faculty selection committee met again during the week of March 19 to make ribbon panel of experts, including leaders final selection recommendations to President Faust and Provost Alan Garber. The of other primate centers and veterinary finalists will be announced on April 16. specialists, has been created to review the The Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching (HILT) program has created a operations, logistics, and staffing at the Learning and Teaching Consortium to provide a forum for pedagogical discussion center. and problem-solving across the University. It includes two representatives from each In a lengthy interview with the Globe faculty or organization (e.g., libraries, museums): one representative familiar with in mid February, Chin said that incidents the substantive teaching and learning issues under scrutiny, the other (an academic would be prevented by better systems and technical manager) responsible for implementing initiative results. Ian Lapp, associate procedures. “Humans do make errors,” he dean for strategic educational initiatives at the School of Public Health, and Katie Vale, pointed out. “Systems are built so you re- director of the academic technology group within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, move the human element of it, so you are co-chair the consortium, which will include about 25 members and begin meeting in less error-prone. I believe that it just takes April to address both short- and long-term HILT goals. time for all these things to take hold.” One first-year goal is the creation of a virtual repository for learning and teaching vcarolyn y. johnson materials on HILT’s website. Another task is to implement and assess the Hauser grants being awarded—to make sure they have real-world traction and to maximize Carolyn Y. Johnson is a reporter for The Boston their impact across the University. And within a few weeks, edited video footage from Globe’s health and science desk; her extensive the February 3 symposium will be posted to the HILT website, including highlights reporting on the problems at the primate center is from the breakout sessions and plenary forums. available at www.bostonglobe.com/staff/johnsonc. 48 May - June 2012 fur. Michael Hays, Noyes professor of ar- chitectural theory at the Graduate School of Design, discussed form, concept, sig- nifier, and sign, along with photographs contrasting, for example, Renaissance and Baroque styles. Visit harvardmag. And Balkanski pro- com/HILT for complete fessor of physics and coverage of the symposium. applied physics Eric Mazur demonstrated his practice of peer instruction, posing a physics question Left to right: Alan Garber, Youngme Moon, Lawrence that evoked three different answers from Bacow, and Michael Sandel the audience, and asking participants to at the closing panel on discuss the reasons for their choices with “Looking to the Future” each other (see “Twilight of the Lecture,” March-April, page 23). to retain information. “You need to prac- After lunch, five concurrent sessions Provost Alan Garber facilitated the fi- tice retrieval,” he asserted. “There’s a huge divided participants into smaller groups nal symposium, “Looking to the Future: benefit in doing this.” to explore “Improving Learning through An Interactive Discussion with Attend- Innovation in Practice: Demonstrations ees.” “Experimentation,” he declared, “is The session on “Innovation in Higher and Ideas.” In one session, Thomas Kelly, something we’d like to see much more of Education” was facilitated by John Pal- Knafel professor of music, delivered a con- at Harvard.” frey VII, Ess librarian and professor of law. densed version of his multimedia lecture David professor of business admin- HARVARDMAGAZINE. Cizik professor of business administration on the 1913 Paris premiereCOM/ of CLeOMMEN sacre du istrationCEMENT Youngme Moon—who as the Clayton Christensen opened with a ques- printemps from his celebrated “First Nights” Business School’s senior associate dean tion: “Why is success so hard to sustain?” course. Jennifer Leaning, Bagnoud pro- for the M.B.A. program has led the cre- In industry after industry, he pointed fessor of the practice of health and hu- ation of the new experience-oriented out, established companies like General man rights at Harvard School of Public field course that sent students around the Motors are dethroned by “someone who Health, followed with vivid photographs world in January—advocated changing comes in at the bottom of the market with documenting the human suffering in Dar- “not what great looks like, but what aver- a simple, affordable product that people can afford, and then they move up.” (He noted that Toyota, for example, began not Commencement Central with the Lexus, but the Corona.) Given the power of online teaching, “now, higher education has a technological core, and so it is now disruptible” by low-end competi- tion (see “Colleges in Crisis,” July-August 2011, page 40). The University of Phoenix, he said, could show his lectures to 135,000 M.B.A. students, and was “spending $200 million per year to make teaching better.” Cathy Davidson, Franklin Humanities Institute professor of interdisciplinary studies at Duke, explained that “disrup- tive things happen as reactions to the sta- OFFICE NEWS CHASE/HARVARD JON tus quo, but we don’t see the status quo— it’s like the air we breathe.” Universities Your One-Stop Source for Commencement News are “doing a fine job of training students Visit harvardmagazine.com/commencement to learn about this year’s for the twentieth century”—but in the speakers—including international-affairs expert Fareed Zakaria, Ph.D.

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